Reconceptualizing Parental Involvement: Looking through the Eyes of the Beholder

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When a number of studies evaluated the benefits of parental involvement on student achievement and motivation, several legislative acts pushed for schools to be more accountable in their efforts to improve partnerships with parents. Parental involvement has been traditionally measured by how or how often parents are present in the schools, their communication with teachers, or their involvement in school or community-based decisions. These definitions, however, do not consider the voices of the parents who may not have the time or financial resources to be present in the schools, nor do they consider the different ways in which some parents conceptualize their involvement in their children's education. This literature review is two-fold: The purpose is to review and evaluate the research on parental involvement and student motivation as an outcome. In doing so, the ways that parental involvement are defined and measured are assessed. The second purpose is to look at additional studies of how those definitions afford or do not afford the involvement of diverse families and to move toward a direction of further study that considers the implications of parental involvement practices that are not always seen in our classroom.